IBM Unveils New Database Software to Help Clients Access Critical Information 50% Faster

ARMONK, NY - IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled new database software to help companies make decisions more intelligently and maximize sales opportunities while reducing expenses.

With new Informix database software, global companies, for the first time, can both warehouse their data and conduct ultra fast online transactions with a simplified software platform. The combination of the two capabilities in one offering can help deliver new results and insights to grow businesses and lower costs by making it easier to use existing Informix infrastructure to help clients work as much as 50% more efficiently.

To effectively compete in today’s challenging global economy, companies are now recognizing the need to use information more effectively. Right now, 85% of CIOs do not believe their information is currently well managed and shared across the entire business. In addition, most companies lack a cohesive strategy to get the most value from their information.

“On a daily basis, our organization needs to extract patient data to track outstanding claims that are long overdue. It used to take us months to collect information that we are now able to retrieve in a matter of minutes,” said Dan Contaldi, vice president, Information Technology, Women’s Health. “Now, this technology allows more time for our central billing staff to focus on the business rather than spending hours sifting through the maze of outstanding claims. We see the addition of the Informix warehousing capabilities providing a complete and cost efficient solution.”

Konkan Railways in India uses this technology for its “Railway Application Package” system to help analyze and maintain train schedules to reduce the likelihood of passenger delays. Not only does this help the railway operate more efficiently, but it has also seen significant energy savings. By automating the light-switching at stations as trains arrive and depart, the system has helped the railway cut energy costs by approximately 20%.

IMPIRE AG, Germany’s largest provider of premium sporting content for live sporting event broadcasts, uses Informix software. IMPIRE is able to bring the most up-to-date sports replays and analysis across television, print, web and mobile services. The new warehouse capabilities will make it even easier for IMPIRE to build on its Informix foundation to continue to meet the demand of sports fans who want sports scores instantaneously.

Customers in all industries, including healthcare, retail and manufacturing, can take advantage of this instantaneous access to information with analytical capabilities to understand market and customer trends. For example, the new software can help retailers easily access and organize data from store, Web, catalog sales and internal inventory and merchandising systems to help analyze future buying trends and, in turn, make smarter business decisions.

“Today, the volume of information is growing exponentially from a variety of different sources. We are seeing a growing number of clients who need to manage the velocity of decision making required to be competitive, and the nature of what can be analyzed to predict new business opportunities,” said Arvind Krishna, vice president, IBM Worldwide Information Management Development. “The Informix warehouse platform can help companies manage their data more cost effectively with a simplified design and deployment using their existing Informix investments.”

IBM Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) is a strategic element of IBM’s Information Management software portfolio, which includes database management software that delivers exceptionally fast OLTP performance, high reliability and low cost administration.

IDS is a leading DBMS (database management systems) in many industries such as retail, telecommunications, government/public sector, and travel and entertainment. In North America alone, IDS is used in critical business applications by eight of the top 10 U.S. retailers and 95% of global telecommunications companies. Informix was named the #1 Vendor of 2008 in VendorRate due to input from its loyal customer base.

The Informix Warehouse Feature will be available to Informix customers worldwide beginning on March 5, 2009. Customers, developers and partners can find out more about this offering at www.ibm.com/informix/warehouse.